Chapter 146

"I have evidence. Zhang Taotao wrote me an IOU. At the time, he promised to pay me 2,000 yuan in service fees, but he couldn't afford it, so he said he'd owe it first, and I had him write an IOU. Afterward, he kept refusing to pay, and I didn't dare make a big deal out of it since I was an accomplice, but I've kept the IOU all this time at my home."

Fang Rui and his colleagues quickly retrieved the IOU from Wang Pandi's house.

"Now we can finally send that scumbag Zhang Taotao to prison!" Zhang exclaimed excitedly.

However, Fang Rui felt it wouldn't be that easy, as an IOU alone couldn't prove Zhang Taotao was the mastermind.

Zhang Taotao was brought to the interrogation room.

He crossed his arms over his chest, looking impatient. "Officers, I've already told you, my sister willingly gave me all her property, and she even signed a property transfer agreement. I didn't defraud her. Besides, property disputes are civil cases, not under police jurisdiction, right? Tell Zhang Mingli to come find me herself!"

"We brought you in because you're suspected of committing two criminal offenses," Fang Rui said.

Zhang Taotao angrily replied, "What crime did I commit? What criminal cases? Officer, don't falsely accuse an innocent person."

"Do you know Wang Pandi?"

Zhang Taotao's expression froze, but he quickly composed himself and said, "Yes, she's my wife's cousin. My wife doesn't get along with her; they have a grudge."

Fang Rui placed the two paternity test reports in front of him.

"Officer, what do you mean by this?" Zhang Taotao asked with trembling lips, his mouth agape. "Isn't Ming Yuan my son? How is this possible? We look so much alike. My God, Ming Yuan and Ming Li were switched at birth? What were the hospital nurses doing? How could they make such a mistake?"

Zhang couldn't help but think to himself that Zhang Taotao was quite the actor - if they hadn't already gathered evidence of his crimes, they might have actually believed him.

"Wang Pandi has already confessed that you switched the babies because you wanted a son."

Zhang Taotao angrily slapped the table. "Slander! She's slandering me! How could I have had the opportunity to switch the babies? Ming Li and Ming Yuan are different genders - unless the nurses switched them, how could I have done it? Officer, Wang Pandi is falsely accusing me. She has a bad relationship with her cousin, and she's trying to frame me. She's so vicious."

"She has an IOU written by you."

"Yes, I borrowed 2,000 yuan from her. The reason is written on the IOU - it was to buy a house. I didn't pay her back because her father and my father-in-law had financial disputes, so that 2,000 yuan was used to offset that. My wife's family all knows about this. You can ask them. Wang Pandi must hold a grudge against me and deliberately switched my child."

"Your child was switched before the IOU was written," Fang Rui reminded him.

"Ah, I was too angry to think straight. Anyway, she's just trying to frame me. This woman is just jealous that my family is doing better than hers."

An IOU alone wasn't enough to prove Zhang Taotao had instructed Wang Pandi to switch the children.

Zhang Taotao was well aware of this fact. As long as he firmly denied any knowledge, he could shift the responsibility for the baby switch to the hospital, then sue them and get compensation.

After all, the police couldn't possibly find evidence that he had switched the children, since Wang Pandi had done everything.

Zhang was infuriated by his smug smile. "You're also suspected of involvement in a murder case. We suspect your sister accidentally killed her husband, and you helped bury the body."

"Officer, even if you want to falsely accuse me, at least be logical about it. First you say I switched my sister's baby, then you say I helped her bury a body. Am I schizophrenic? If I had switched my sister's baby, I could have just sent her to prison and taken my child back to raise. Do the police solve cases by making up stories? You don't have any evidence."

Zhang took out the bagua mirror: "Do you recognize this mirror?"

"Of course, my sister asked me to help make two bagua mirrors and a peach wood sword, so I found a master to make them. Is there something wrong with this mirror?" Zhang Taotao examined the mirror and tossed it lightly onto the table. He tilted his head back with a smug expression.

Zhang was stunned; he hadn't expected the evidence he had worked so hard to find would be so easily dismissed.

"Officers, do you have any other evidence? If not, let me go home quickly - I need to make dinner for my son."

"Your son? Didn't you just learn that Zhang Mingyuan isn't your son? Why are you still thinking about making him dinner?" Fang Rui mocked.

"The bond of raising a child is stronger than blood ties. I've raised Ming Yuan for so many years - even if he's not my biological son, he is now. Ming Li is my daughter now too. One of these days I'll have her acknowledge her ancestral roots, and I can fulfill my duties as a father."

Zhang Taotao stood up, looking down at Fang Rui and Zhang with triumphant eyes. His plan had been so perfect - it would have been a shame if there were no witnesses. The fact that the police had discovered his masterpiece but could do nothing about it gave him an immense sense of achievement.

This is what you call a perfect crime!

Next, he would reconnect with Zhang Mingli, and then he could openly demand that she hand over all her property to his precious son Ming Yuan.

After Zhang Taotao left, Zhang angrily said, "Can we really do nothing about this scumbag? Look how smug he is. It's infuriating!"

Fang Rui called a case analysis meeting.

Although Zhang and Chen Xue had broken up, they shared the same attitude toward Zhang Taotao.

"Wang Pandi has confessed everything. Isn't that enough to prove Zhang Taotao was the mastermind?" Chen Xue said angrily.

"According to our investigation, Wang Pandi has significant grudges with Zhang Taotao and his wife, so her confession can only be used as supporting evidence. The IOU states the money was borrowed to buy a house, so it can't be used as evidence either."

"The crime happened so long ago that many pieces of evidence are gone. We can't prove Zhang Taotao was involved in burying the body," Chen Xue sighed.

Everyone fell silent. After all the evil things Zhang Taotao had done, would he really get away with it?

"I suspect there are important clues in the memories Zhang Mingli lost," Fang Rui looked at Lin Sen. "Can you help Zhang Mingli recover those memories?"

"If it's psychogenic amnesia, I can try," Lin Sen paused. "But even if Ming Li remembers everything, her testimony probably can't be used as direct evidence."

Chen Xue looked at Mu Mian. seaʀᴄh thё novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

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Mu Mian had been idly reading a medical journal. Feeling Chen Xue's gaze, Mu Mian said, "Don't worry, I'll work hard to find evidence, but let me finish this page first."

"..."

After the meeting, Mu Mian went back to examining the victim's body.

Chen Xue sighed nearby, "We've examined this body inside and out several times, but haven't found any evidence. Mian Mian, we're not really going to let Zhang Taotao get away with this, are we?"

"Wherever there's a crime, there must be evidence!" Mu Mian said softly.

The victim's chest cavity had been doused with tung oil, which had dried into a dark red film.

Mu Mian examined the oil film inch by inch.

"What's this?"

Mu Mian used tweezers to pick up something black.

Chen Xue stared at the tweezers for a moment, then said, "It must have been an insect when it was alive."